Contest

Between each story arc of Skullkickers we have a special issue called ‘Tavern Tales’. It’s a way for our regular creative team to get a breather and also a way for us to show readers fun interpretations of the Skullkickers done by different creative teams. Past Tavern Tales issues have included top notch comic talent and our next one, “Son of Tavern Tales” arriving in issue #18, is no exception.

In addition to 3 spiffy short stories by some of the best creators in comics, we’re going to have a fan submitted story written by a new writer and another one drawn by a new artist! This is pro comic material for one of the biggest publishers in the industry.

Ready to kick some skulls?

SUBMISSION

Writers: Fill out the Contest Release Form and attach that to your email submission. Then, come up with a fun and inventive Skullickers-worthy story idea, just a page or so outline. The actual comic story must be 6 pages or less. Outline the idea, explaining the plot/events and what major things will happen on each page. For the initial submission we don’t need a full script, just the overall pitch. If your idea is chosen we’ll work with you to flesh out the idea into a complete script and team you up with an artist of our choice.

Artists: Fill out the Contest Release Form and attach that to your email submission. Then, download the sample script written by Jim Zub and draw those two sequential pages of Skullkickers-worthy action, making sure it fits the script as outlined. They don’t have to be inked or colored, but they can be if you want to. Send a low resolution jpeg (72 to 100 dpi is fine) of those two pages along with your release form. If your artwork is chosen we’ll team you up with one of our other Tavern Tales writers and help you take your skills to the next level, completing the story that will be published in issue #18.

SUBMISSION CUT-OFF DATE: No email submissions will be taken after APRIL 30th, 2012. That’s the cut-off. Depending on the number of submissions we’ll try to contact winners by end of May, quite possibly sooner.

STEP ONE: DOWNLOAD OUR CONTEST RELEASE FORM. FILL IT OUT AND MAKE SURE IT’S ATTACHED TO YOUR EMAIL SUBMISSION. If it isn’t, we won’t even look at your submission. We’ll trash it instantly and you’ll be disqualified.

STEP FOUR: CROSS YOUR FINGERS, or KEEP SUBMITTING. YOU CAN SUBMIT AS MANY TIMES AS YOU LIKE BEFORE THE DEADLINE.

STEP FIVE: FIND OUT IF YOU WON AND CELEBRATE or DROWN YOUR SORROWS, AS APPROPRIATE.

TIPS FOR WRITERS:

• If you haven’t attached or previously sent a fully filled out Release Form we won’t even look at your material and you’ll be disqualified.

• Keep your story idea short and snappy. A paragraph or two, max. Since the final short story will only be 6 pages you don’t have time for world-spanning crazy town stuff.

• Don’t create reams and reams of new content for your story. The Skullkickers concept, at its heart, is two mercenary monster mashers killing baddies in fun and entertaining ways. Violence and banter.

• Skullkickers stories are PG-13. The violence is cartoon gory and there’s no sexual content. Cursing is limited to @$%& symbols.

• Read our previously released issues to get a feel for pacing, content and dialogue.

• As far as readers can tell right now, Baldy has the only gun in Skullkickers’ fantasy world. It’s not a steampunk world or tech-driven place, Skullkickers is low-brow high-fantasy with a single gun screwing stuff up.

• Don’t use your story idea to show Baldy or Shorty in the distant past. Don’t do origin stuff, keep it focused on the monster-mashing present, somewhere just before/around issue #1 when our main plot got rolling. Look to our other Tavern Tales issues (#6 & 12) for guidance.

• The humor in Skullkickers comes from their hi-jinks and dialogue, not parodies of other fantasy stuff. Don’t put “Bonan the Carbarian” in your pitch or useless crap like that.

TIPS FOR ARTISTS:

• If you haven’t attached or previously sent a fully filled out Release Form we won’t even look at your art samples and you’ll be disqualified.

• Follow the 2 page sample script for your submission. Seeing other jpegs of non-Skullkickers art you’ve done is fine and all, but the sample pages are what we’re actually judging.

• Keep the boys recognizable and “on-model”. You don’t have to draw them like Edwin (look at the fun interpretations in our two previous Tavern Tales issues) but the designs and features are clear.

• Make sure you’ve left adequate room for dialogue and sound effects on your sample pages. This is probably the most common mistake made by people who haven’t drawn professional comics before.

• Read our previously released issues to get a feel for pacing, expressions and action.

• Clear storytelling is more important than crazy detail or weird panel arrangement.

THE LEGAL STUFF – IMPORTANT!

1. These rules are going to be supplemented by MORE rules, which will be accompanied by a piece of paper you’ll have to sign and send back to us before you can submit anything. We’re just laying out the basic ideas here, so that if you have an issue with any of it you’ll be saved the time of writing up that amazing pitch!

2. Both Image Comics and the brilliant minds behind Skullkickers have tons of ideas pitched to them constantly. Some of those ideas end up being sort of similar to each other in one way or another – that’s just the business. You’ll need to agree that if you pitch us Independence Day, you won’t get all bent out of shape if the winning pitch is Mars Attacks.

3. If your submission is selected as the winner, then your sole and only prize is getting it published in a real-deal, big time comic. (Pretty sweet!)

4. The story created from the winning pitch, including any characters or sweet legendary +5 battle axes the winner might invent, will become part of the Skullkickers universe and property of the Skullkickers owners.

5. Everything in your pitch needs to be created by you, or used in agreement with someone else. Don’t put Gandalf in your pitch unless the Tolkien family has written you a nice little agreement saying you can. (Or unless you’re a member of the Tolkien family, which would be extra sweet.)

6. Don’t send us anything you can’t bear to part with (original artwork, that +5 battle axe, etc.), because chances are we won’t be able to get it back to you.

7. This contest is being organized, judged and dealt with by the Skullkickers creative team. It’s not an Image Comics contest, it’s a Skullkickers contest. You’re entering the ring with SK and SK only.